Tag Archives: self-love

I haven’t written a Sunday Sparkle post in a long time. Mostly because I don’t even know where to begin.

Inhale courage, exhale fear.

So I revisited my past posts just to see what they were like…but really, I was procrastinating. Surprisingly though, my old Sunday Sparkle posts (like this one, this one, and this one) were actually kinda nice. They reminded me of how far I’ve come and how I always tried to be the best version of myself that I could possibly be.

Over the past years, I was trying to overcome a lot of my fears. More recently though, it’s vulnerability that I’ve been struggling with. After taking some time off for myself, and well, falling in love, it seems like some of my old walls came back up again. And it became harder for me to speak to and look into my own heart. Continue reading →

Yay! We just wrapped our very first Master Your Own Beauty workshop over at The Healing House!

With my partner in kikay, pro makeup artist Bambie. Doesn’t she look like a Japanese princess? Her skin’s so perfect!

The attendees in this workshop quickly made their way into my heart (they’re also little more private than usual, so I can’t really post too many photos—sorry, guys!). It was such a fun day and I have to admire them all for their strength. It takes a lot of vulnerability to show up to a makeup class and have someone help you navigate through some of your insecurities. That’s why I’m super happy I got to do this class with Bambie—we like to handle everyone we meet with a little sparkle + a lot of TLC :)

With one of our participants! Loved showing these girls how to let their inner beauty shine on the outside. It’s my favorite part about my job!

I gotta say though, I learned a lot of from our students, too. In one of the exercises, we asked the girls to take a look at the mirror and pick out their favorite feature. One of the participants brought her 7-year-old daughter, Luccia, and I had a very interesting conversation with her. Here’s what happened:

Ugh, my heart just melted! This precious little girl was right and she just taught me a h-u-g-e lesson. You’re not supposed to just pick and love the best parts of your face (or your own self, for that matter). You love everything—the good, the bad, the beautiful, and the seemingly ugly.

I totally get it now…and to whoever’s out there reading this, I hope you get it, too. You are beautiful because of everything you are and everything you’ve been through—it’s never, ever in spite of anything else. ♥

At a red carpet event, Buzzfeed asked Hollywood actresses what advice they would give young women. There were so many gems shared here, but one of my favorites was from Anna Farris. She said, “It’s so easy to spread the message of being yourself, but actually, sort-of implementing it in your own life is difficult. I think it takes a long time to find what makes you happy and what your goals are.” Watch her clip at the 0:49 mark!

If I were to give young women advice, it would be to pay attention your intuition. That quiet voice that’s guiding you—trust and honor it. Listen carefully to what it has to say before making your decisions. You don’t necessarily have to follow it if your heart really wants to go the other way. You just need to listen, so that you’re aware of the consequences (or awesomeness) that can come from your choices. It’s one of my secrets to living life with no regrets.

I learned so many life lessons this week! They started out as challenging experiences, but I’m trying to look at them from a different perspective.

Here we go!

The “don’t let people bring you down” part of this quote was a big one for me. A few jabs were thrown my way this week and I was very surprised because this normally doesn’t happen. So once the shock wore off, a little anger began to creep in. I thought of things I should’ve said or done, and in a moment of pure indulgence, I thought it would’ve felt really good to just do this:

Here’s the thing: I can’t control or change what happened, but I can choose how I react and feel about the situations and people I encounter. There’s really no way I’m going to allow resentment or anger to linger in my life, so I had to get my head straight and work on helping my ego let these issues go. It’s still a work in progress, but I already know that these experiences are going to be some of the greatest teaching moments of my life!

This is true for hanging on to anything negative really—like anger, resentment, or not being willing to forgive someone.

If you’re in a similar situation and want to work on letting stuff go, keep reading! I’ll share my insights (and talk about the kind love I’m giving myself) after the jump! Continue reading →